


VIII

by tcourtois



Series: Fork in the road [7]
Category: Football RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-11
Updated: 2015-04-11
Packaged: 2018-03-22 09:05:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3723175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tcourtois/pseuds/tcourtois





	VIII

I.

Mats

 

“I know what you must think of me.”

My mother was silent, her lips pursed as she stared at me from the other end of the table. She had called everyone together, and was now talking about my infidelity like we were running a business, and I had just lost us money.

“No, I don’t think you do.” She snapped.

“Ava is a nice girl, and I believe that she will not take their personal business to the press, even though she has every right to. I think the problem is this other young woman.” My Father interjected, the first time I had heard him say anything on the subject. Jonas sat sulkily beside him, waiting for our mother to lay into him next.

“I can deal with Cathy…” I mumbled.

“Will you? You’ve had plenty of opportunity to deal with her. What does she expect now? To become your next wife? It’s time for me to speak with her.”

I stared across at her in horror.

She wanted to speak to Cathy and I knew that would be a terrible idea. As intimidating as my mother was, she would not be able to scare Cathy away, and she would probably only scare her straight into a journalist’s office.

“That would keep her quiet though. It’s what she has wanted all along. Provided that Ava doesn’t go to the press, the split happens quietly, Mats begins dating Cathy publicly making her happy and concealing the whole thing.” My father spoke quietly, mostly addressing his wife directly.

Jonas stood from his chair then. “He made the mistake, he will live with it. I covered for him for too long. If Cathy or Ava don’t go to the press, I’ll do it myself.”

He knocked his chair over on his way out of the room, it bounced and made a clattering sound for several seconds, the sound reverberating around in my ears.

“It is your choice Mats. This shows that Ava is not taking you back-.” She held up the divorce papers that my lawyer had dropped round earlier. “But you can choose what you do next.”

“So you’re not going to speak with Cathy then?”

“No. I now thing you should do that yourself.”

Ava

“I bet he’s furious. This is the fifth article about the two of you this week.” Emma slid her phone across the table.

“I don’t need to see it.”

I looked across at Marco. He shrugged.

I wondered how he felt about all of this. Had I pushed him too far into this stupid fake crap? Maybe I shouldn’t have involved him. He would be back from his injury soon, and he’d have to face Mats every day.

“So what’s the truth to all of this?” I looked up, shocked at the voice. She spoke to me in very good German, something I hadn’t expected as we had been talking to her in English only. Robin wore a very surprised expression. Lara.

“You want the whole honest truth? I’m sure you’ve been wondering what the heck is going on with this group since you met Robin and started hanging out with us.” I took a sip of my cocktail, glancing over at the other girl. I had spent the last few days speculating about her, but since then she had involved herself in the group, spending time with me and Emma and letting Robin have his time with Marcel and Marco. Yesterday the three of them went off on their own, they needed it. I was jealous of course when they came back and told us about the yacht that they chartered.

“I can’t quite work the relationships out.” She admitted.

“I don’t know how much Robin has told you, I guess I’ll start at the beginning.” Marco slid close to me then, mouthing ‘are you sure you want to talk about this?’ at me. I nodded.

“A few years ago I married Mats Hummels, and I thought that he was the love of my life. Then just before Christmas I came home from work early to find him fucking Cathy Fischer, a woman he knew from when he was younger, and someone I thought was firmly in his past. It turns out that they had been having an affair for a while behind my back. I was horrified and I filed for divorce straight away. He humiliated me. Now Marco is just being a good guy and distracting me from what is going on at home.-“

She looked sympathetically at me before grabbing my hand across the table.

“That’s awful and I’m shocked, he’s a national hero.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think he was capable of it either.”

She looked uneasy, her eyes locked on Marco. “What about Marco?” she asked.

“Marco is my very good friend. However, we have an agreement that it doesn’t hurt to make Mats squirm by not squashing the rumours that something more is going on. After what he did to me, it’s only fair.” I looked at Marco. He didn’t say anything, he was almost too quiet. Maybe he had nothing to add to what I had said. He shifted nervously in his seat.

“Excuse me.” He said, standing from his seat.

I watched as he sprinted towards the block that housed our rooms.

Lara raised her eyebrows looking at Robin, who was as speechless as the rest of us.

Marcel was next to stand, he squeezed Emma’s shoulder, dropping a kiss to her forehead before mumbling that he should find out what was troubling Marco.

My gut feeling told me that I had put him in an impossible position, pitting him about his captain and friend. I felt like a bitch.

Marco

“I am so stupid!”

I knew Marcel was just behind me. He wasn’t very good at sneaking around, and so I left the room door open for him to follow me in. I walked straight to the wall, banging a fist against it.

“What are you talking about here?” he asked.

“I really thought that I could win her over. I didn’t expect to do it yet, she has only just found out about him cheating but still. I thought she had some feelings for me at least. I thought I could make her see how good it would be to be with me!”

“Wait- this is because she called you her good friend? That doesn’t mean that she has completely friend zoned you Marco. It just means that she’s not ready to label it as anything else yet.” He sat down on the edge of the bed, his hands in his lap. “Emma says that she talks about you a lot, she wouldn’t do that if she didn’t care about you. She really appreciates what you’re doing for her.”

“What am I doing for her? When she asked me to do this it sounded like we would be fake dating, that I would be able to take her out and post about her on social media but all I’m doing is not responding to what the press are spouting.” I put my hands over my face, letting out a sigh.

“It would look very bad if the two of you started dating before the split is announced, that’s probably what she is waiting for but if you’re concerned then you need to talk to her. If I were you I would tell her everything. You should tell her that you’re in love with her, because you are. The longer you wait to tell her that the less likely you are to have anything real with her. That’s my opinion.” He got up and started over to me.

Then I heard a little knock. I looked up, putting my hands down. The door was still open and there stood Lara, a beer in her hand.

I looked to Marcel, praying that she hadn’t heard what he had just said.

“Robin said that I should bring you this…” she scurried over to me and handed me the beer.

Marcel laughed, trying to cover up how tense we both were. “What, he didn’t send me one?”

She shook her head. “Sorry, only one.”

“Thanks for bringing it.” He said quietly.

“Hey Marco…” she reached out towards me, lightly touching my arm. “Ava is really worried about you.”

 

 

II.

Mats

“Are you trying to move to PSG or something? Is that why we’re here? Are you trying to talk me into letting you move?” Ava joked with me over lunch, but I was tense.

It had been 3 days since Cathy fell, and I hadn’t had any opportunity to sneak away to find out what hospital she was in and visit. Ava wasn’t letting me out of her sight.

“I can’t believe I have to leave today to go back to work.” She sighed.

I put my arm around her and kissed the top of her head.

I walked her back to the landing strip where our pilot waited for us, carrying her bag in my free hand. I shook slightly when she hugged me good bye.

“Behave, I know what you and your brother are like when the two of you are together.”

“I promised when he got jealous of this trip that he could join me when you had to go back, but I won’t have as much fun with him as I have had with you, you know that.” I hugged her again, pressing my face against her shoulder and inhaling the smell of her. Sometimes I felt the urge to cling to her as if I would never see her again. Every day that she remained in the dark felt like a blessing because it was another day that I got to keep her.

~

As soon as Ava was on her way back to Dortmund, I started ringing around all of the hospitals. On my fourth call I found Cathy. The operator informed me that she was in their intensive care unit and that they hadn’t been able to contact any of her relatives so were glad for my call.

I made my way there via taxi, my stomach doing somersaults as I wondered what state I would find her in.

The staff I found very helpful and attentive and none of them seemed to know who I was, as they were mostly from an older generation or female and of course, I don’t play in France. Had I moved to PSG like Ava joked, maybe they would know who I was?

I slipped into Cathy’s room and paced around the bed, trying not to look at all of the various tubes coming out of her. I had never been very good with blood, and so the bag that hung close to her wrist made me feel queasy.

I sat in the chair beside her and took her hand, holding it for a moment. “This is not my fault.” I told myself out loud.

Something caught my eye, the various pieces of paper poking out of the binder at the bottom her bed. I reached for it, pulling it out and towards myself before it landed in my lap and I was able to flip it open.

As I skim read the medical notes I didn’t understand most of it, what with it being medical jargon and mostly French. Clearly though the staff were bilingual as most of the notes had been re written in English beside the original. I noticed that the names on the bottom of the chart, the names of Cathy’s two consultants were very different. One was a very English name, the other was most definitely French.

Pt admitted with concussion, unknown head trauma and bleed. First check indicated that patient unable to breathe unaided.

Shit. I thought. That explained all of the breathing apparatus, and the mask over Cathy’s mouth and nose. I had seen this sort of thing, only ever in movies. Even when my grandparents were in hospital, they were never this bad.

Pt regained consciousness briefly, breathing unaided. Severe confusion and slurring of speech. Patient sedated.

Just as I was about to close the binder, the door swung open and a young man entered. He wore a stethoscope around his neck so I just assumed that he was a doctor, one of the consultants perhaps.

“You shouldn’t be reading that.” He grumbled.

“Sorry.” I passed it back to him. “I didn’t understand any of it any way.”

“Are you family? Has no one explained her condition to you yet?”

I shook my head, then nodded.

“Which is it? Are you family or not?”

“Er- yes.” I gulped.

“She sustained a serious head injury from a fall down a flight of stairs. She has very slowly come through the critical period. We managed to stop the bleed on her brain using stents, but until she wakes fully we will not know the full extent of her condition.” He took the binder from me, scribbling away at the most recent sheet of paper, no doubt recording that he had been in to check on her.

“When she gets better, will she be transferred to a hospital closer to home?” I asked. The question sprung to mind for my own selfish gain of course, with it being easier to sneak away to a hospital in Dortmund than to one in Paris.

“We can arrange that, yes.”

“I have a private one in mind. I’ll pay all of her expenses. I want her to have the best care. I feel partly responsible because she came here to see me. She must have fallen on her way to see me.” I tried not to give anything away to the doctor, just the barest of details so that he would believe that I was family and that she had an innocent explanation for the fall.

He only briefly looked up from the notes.

“Are you her partner? I know that you said that you were family but if you are her partner then I have something else that I have to inform you.” He looked at one sheet, then flicked to another, nodding to himself before he mouthed ‘definitely’.

“Actually yes, but it’s complicated.” I sighed.

“I’m not asking for any personal details. You don’t need to explain how closely related to her you are. I must just go and consult with my colleague for a moment to ensure that I have read the notes right and that I am not giving you any false information. I am only allowed to share this with very close family members. Have her parents been notified?” he stood and made his way to the door, motioning to me with his hand that he would only be five minutes talking to his colleague.

“I will try to get hold of them now. Do you know where her phone is? I don’t have mine.” I lied.

He pointed to the small locker next to the bed and I nodded.

I let out a sigh as soon as I was left alone with her again, digging around in her hand bag which was in the locker until I found her phone.

I silently prayed that it wasn’t pass worded and was rewarded with it being completely open.

Resisting the overwhelming temptation to look at her messages, I typed out one to her mother and her father giving them my contact number and asking for them to call me. It didn’t feel right that I use her phone to call them to explain what had happened to her. They would answer excited no doubt to speak to their daughter only to hear the voice of someone else and that wasn’t fair.

I tucked the phone away just as the doctor came back into the room. His colleague lingered outside for a moment and they spoke rapidly in French through the door way until the other moved off to continue the ward rounds.

“I’m afraid that it is bad news. I had to confirm this as there was conflicting information in the file. It seems that when Miss Fischer came in we did not initially realise that she was pregnant. When we did further tests we discovered that the pregnancy had terminated. With the lack of oxygen to her brain, the foetus was starved and-“

“What?!” I cut him off, putting my hand over my mouth.

“You didn’t know that she was pregnant?”

I shook my head.

He went back to the file, mumbling to himself and cursing under his breath.

“8 weeks. I’m sorry, this must be a lot to take in. I will leave you with her.”

Tucking the file away, he put a hand on my shoulder. “You don’t have to apologise. I don’t think she knew either.” I explained, barely able to align the words in the right order as they piled out of me. Cathy had been so adamant that she wanted nothing more to do with me that night, that there was no way she could have known that she was pregnant with my child. Had she known she would have told me, because surely she would have used it against me.

Would she have been excited? Would she have wanted it and felt attached to it? Or would it have just been a tool to hurt me with.

I could imagine the glee she would have had telling Ava that she was pregnant where we had struggled to conceive. I wished I had never told her that.


End file.
